Zero-cost Solar Energy and High altitude Living are Quite a bit easier than You Might Think
If you live in high altitude climates or within a substantial elevation, solar and wind can certainly make pretty decent financial sense. Despite whatever you sometimes have heard an elementary solar installation is not merely less expensive than you would imagine nevertheless it really may end up costing you little or nothing once you submit an application for federal, state and local rebates. Costs of all commodities including fuel, food and electricity are positiioned to inflate drastically. Now is the best time to lock in a set cost for your electricity for the following 2 decades and preserve a significant portion of the dollars you may be coughing up to utilities. If you do not have the funds you'll find financing alternatives for green energy
I live high at 9000 feet, at the very summit of a mountain located within Clear Creek County outside of Idaho Springs, Colorado. Besides being the location where the Colorado Gold rush of 1859 began it's also among the list of regions in america where there are more full sun days than most places in the united states.
If you assume that Florida, the so named "Sunshine State" is the greatest place for solar, reconsider. While you are probably considering bikini clad coeds getting 2nd degree burns on Florida Beaches during Spring Break, you might be off by way of a couple of thousand miles with regards to excessive solar exposure.
At high elevations the atmosphere is considerably thinner. As you may recall, it is our atmosphere that filters out the more harmful solar radiation. The higher you will get the greater radiation you're exposed to. Couple this together with the colder ambient temperature ranges encountered at altitude and you end up with the optimal circumstances for a solar panel or what is otherwise known as a PV (photovoltaic) array. Electrical conductors generally conduct more electricity at reduced temperatures. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with fundamentally no resistance at cryogenic temperatures. Solar panels are basically a specific form of silicon semi-conductor, which also pass more electrons as the temperature becomes lower.
As is turns out, the winter optimal time of year to produce solar electricity in Colorado along with other mountainous regions of united states, whereas cloudy Connecticut or Massachusetts are a lot less than ideal. Providing that the snow can be kept off of your PV array you will generate a lot of energy that may be credited against your utility bill through "net metering" programs offered by most electrical power utilities.
In fact it is feasible to generate excessive amperages, which can surpass the capacity of the power service under extreme circumstances. Luckily, the coldest time of day often occurs during the early hours of the morning where the only source of solar radiation is moonlight.
The traditional wisdom is that it could take many years to amortize the expense of even a modest grid tie PV system. A minimum grid tie PV system is generally around 5 KW (5000 watts). A fully installed 5KW system is going to cost anywhere between $15,000 - $20,000 dollars these days.
Almost all people would tell themselves "why do I want to spend this sort of money when i can just pay my $200 - $500 power bill". The easy response in this tough economy is "this is much more suited for Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but I need to keep battling to pay my mortgage".
It turns out that there is another side to this that is not so evident. Most state, local and county governments together with utilities offer incentives to subsidize the installation of grid tie PV systems. A grid tie system is a real very simple idea. You install a PV array on your own roof, that is linked to a device referred to as an inverter. An inverter converts the dc power that is generated by a PV array into 120 volt AC (alternating current ) synchronized to the power line electricity. Basically, you are transmitting power back into the grid and the electric utility gives you credit for this towards your power bill.
They don't give you the retail rate that you pay them, but they do offer you a wholesale rate, which can make a pretty hefty dent against your power bill. Imagine saving $100 - $200 per month, or maybe more. This is actual money going directly back to your pocket that could be allocated to other needs throughout these demanding economic times.
Perhaps you are thinking, "that's a good idea, but where can i get $20,000" for such a system. The first place you need to begin is www.dsireusa.org . This excellent website is an excellent compendium of sate incentives for sustainable energy. For example: if you check out Colorado you'll find a great selection of programs. You will find 17 utility rebates, some of which pay up to $2.00/watt and State programs which pay up to $1.50 per watt. There are lots of other state and local programs. Colorado is just the tip of the iceberg. Related programs are plentiful in all 50 states and territories.
To comply with the prerequisites of many incentives you must have an authorized installer or electrician carry out your installation. The best way to approach this is by looking around the internet for a material supplier who will get you a "kit" at the best possible price and after that go with a suggested installer. The most common kit consists of PV panels, inverter, combiner box, mounting rack and wiring.
Should you be like many Americans during this bad economy prehaps you are proclaiming that, "yeah that sounds great, but my credit score isn't so great anymore". Well become a member of the club. Remember that you are not alone and a decent credit rating nowadays is within the mid 600s. You may get financing for the solar installation from a range of sources. On of the better ones stands out as the Lending Club. "Green" loans are obtainable from them for competitive rates of under 7%.
In reality you only require the borrowed funds to finance the installation while you are waiting to get your incentive rebates.
With the price of oil sky rocketing, the U.S. dollar deteriorating with respect to other currencies, food and commodity prices surging ahead and also the cost of electric increasing without any end in sight, perhaps you should lock in a fixed price of electricity for the following two decades? That is the life cycle of a PV grid tie system.
Could you not afford to at the very least check out this option? Don't believe it when the pundits convince you alternative energy is just for "tree huggers" and "pie in the sky idealists". Wind and solar are here to stay and they make great economic sense, particularly in this window of opportunity where the government will pay for most if not all of the cost.
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